Engines vs. Zombies
Engines vs. Zombies '''is the 9th special. Plot '''Part 1 One Autumn day, Lilim and Michael are pulling an excursion toward the Midwest. When they arrive at a station, they meet Elsa and talk to her for a bit. Elsa eventually warns the two that Zomboss has been around the area lately, so they should be on the lookout. It starts raining later in the day as Zomboss pulls into a yard with his freight train, unaware the tracks are still muddy following the prior night's storm and that Lilim and Michael are on the way. Lilim and Michael fly down the line at track speed, and as luck has it, mud is splashed right on Zomboss. This makes him very mad, and he vows to get revenge on them. That night, Michael and Lilim pull into the yard Zomboss is at, and he threatens to revive zombies to destroy them for making his paint dirty. The next day, Zomboss has a briefing with two of his right-hands, and tells them to look for places locomotives scrapped or wrecked at. From there, they will use summoning spells to revive their ghosts and take them to wherever Zomboss wants to meet at. Little do they know that May had been watching them. Lilim secretly feels a little worried, and she tells Nicholas, as he says he can keep a secret. But when he finds out, he gets annoyed, as he doesn't wish to accept this as true. Lilim now refers to Lily and Marie, who promise to stick by her in the event that this does happen. Meanwhile, Zomboss' minions are bringing ghost engines back left and right. Zomboss eventually meets up with his minions and they engines they found. He is impressed, and he uses his machine to turn the ghosts into zombies (against their will), wiping their memories and having them confused on destroying Lilim and Michael. That evening, Lilim sets off with the Highland Valley mountain excursion. Inspired by one of May's old habits, Lilim narrates her journey as she travels up the mountain, pointing out the historical significance of the valley, and other information. When she reaches the top station, Ely says that she made "a better tour guide than the conductor". The next day, Zomboss is loading some of his grain hoppers at Cut Bank, MT when one of his minions approaches him with a new "recruit" he found. That same evening, May finally finds Lilim and warns her about Zomboss' plan. Lilim calls an assembly among some of her friends. Ely comes up with the idea to set up Plants vs. Zombies ''style plants to combat the zombies. Another day, Zomboss is leading a westbound intermodal along the Marias Pass route when one of his "trombies" (SP SD40T-2 #8278) is roaming around. Zomboss orders him to go back to rest, but 8278 thinks he should be allowed to roam around because of what he had to go through. He tells Zomboss about the day in 1989 when he and his train had a horrific accident in San Bernadino, CA. Meanwhile, Ely and William are taking coal train 578 from Shire Oaks, PA to Norfolk, VA. On the way, they have a pickup at Amfire Mining in Portage, PA. After the pickup, they continue east on the Pittsburgh Line, but they barely make it through Cassandra when they realize that their helper engines ran out of crew time and there are no crews available for them until 10:28. Dispatch ordered them to reverse back into the siding and tie down. They do just that, and Ely's crew signs off early. As they are anxiously waiting for the new crew, Ely spots a PRR E7 roaming around, and he is shocked by what he saw. He tells Nicholas when he arrives in Harrisburg, but Nicholas takes it with a grain of salt and is annoyed at Ely for waking him up. Meanwhile, Michael and Lilim are heading toward Altoona. Michael is laughing off what Zomboss said to him, but Lilim thinks it could be possible. When they arrive in Altoona, Itachi later warns them that this is indeed for real, as she had been snooping. Characters * Lilim * Michael * Nicholas * Will * Lily * Kerry * Shawn * Josiah * Zomboss * Elsa * Marie * May * Ely * William * Pamela * Dakota * Benjamin * Daniel * Itachi * Miranda ''(does not speak so far) * BNSF ES44DC #7517 (not named) * BNSF C44-9W #4167 (not named) * BNSF SD70ACe #8423 (not named) * BNSF C44-9W #5124 (not named) * BNSF C44-9W #758 (not named) * Amtrak P40DC #819 (not named) * NYC H-5l #1375 (not named) * VIA Rail F40PH #6444 (not named) * NS C44-9W #9939 (not named) * CSX AC6000CW #666 (not named) * SP SD40T-2 #8278 (not named) Locations * Highland Valley * Tidewater * Industrial Wasteland * Northeast Corridor * NS Chicago Line * NS Lake Division District * CSX Saginaw Subdivision * CSX Metropolitan Subdivision * Generic Midwest Region * NS Reading Line * Toronto Rail Lands * Marias Pass * Clovis Sub * NS Pittsburgh Line * Altoona Trivia * This special is based on the Plants vs. Zombies ''franchise. * This special marks the first of a few things: ** First special since Tale of a J Class to have three or more parts. ** First special to be completely clean of text-to-speech voices. ** Sarah Clemens, Martin David, and Chartreuse Railfanning join the cast. ** First appearance of a Marias Pass location west of Cut Bank in ''Rails of Highland Valley. ** It is revealed that Highland Valley was formerly called Greenwood, though the latter is the name of the neighborhood. *** It is also revealed that Highland Valley was used as a battlefield during the Civil War. **** However, the accuracy of this is questionable, as the only other time the Confederates made it to Pennsylvania was the Battle of Gettysburg. *** First time Dakota uses his "Get him!" gag and Lily uses her "I'll drill him!" gag. * Lilim and Michael's accident with a stalled car in Appomattox, VA is mentioned. * The sound of the mud splashing on Zomboss is from Real Wheels' There Goes A Tank. * According to BNSF #4167, locomotives that die don't go to heaven or hell. Their souls stay at the place they died at. * The events of The Curse of the Fog and The Fog Strikes Again are mentioned by Nicholas. ** It is also implied that he doesn't like to be reminded of it. * The sound of Zomboss' device firing was from an episode of McHale's Navy. * The Thomas The Tank Engine ''creepy pasta "Timothy The Ghost Engine" is referenced by Zomboss. * Will, Dakota, and Lily's running gags are used during the briefing scene. * The images of SP #8278 before his disaster were provided by NMW Productions on the ''Rails of Highland Valley ''Discord server. * ''MSTS sound effects are used as Zomboss is pulling his intermodal. * Ely and William's dilemma just after departing Portage is very similar to when the creator caught NS 578 in Cassandra, PA in May 2019, but the helpers needed a recrew, so the train had to reverse back into the siding and tie down. * When Ely's crew talks about getting food from Sheetz and then staying at a Quality Inn in Altoona, this once again comes from the creator's Altoona trip in May 2019. At the end of Day 2 of his trip, he got food from Sheetz, and he stayed at a Quality Inn. * When Ely wakes Nicholas up and tells him what happened, it is a reference to the ''Thomas The Tank Engine ''episode "Thomas, Percy, and The Dragon". * The irony of Michael saying that if it were doomsday, he and Lilim would be pulled from service, is that it really did happen in late 2019. Goofs * The mud on Zomboss' nose isn't detailed enough. * In Part 1, Marie and May pronounce Lilim's name wrong. * Zomboss may not speak clearly enough on some scenes. * When Lilim arrives at the yard Zomboss is at, some of her plow is hidden by the flood lights. * When the BN U30C is being summoned, BNSF ES44C4 #6976 is seen behind the Tier 4 even though #6976 is not in Zomboss' gang. It's possible that 6976 didn't know what the Tier 4 was up to. * Lilim refers to the top lake as a waterfall when it fact it looks more like a reservoir. * When Ely and William stop outside Cassandra, the sky is still fading blue. But when the scene cuts to Ely's helper engines, there is sunset. * Ely pronounces "Cresson" as "Cwesson". Special Category:Specials Category:Season 4 Category:Upcoming media